The elf ear-itation.

Elf Witch · Feb 6, 2013

I really dislike the huge silly looking elves. I prefer ears more like what Klaus drew their bigger than human ears but not so big as to look silly. I picture half elves to have more vulcan style ears.

I like to see differences in sub races in one game I played in high elves were tall almost 6 feet with very pale skin white blond hair and gray eyes. The silver elves were smaller with black hair and green eyes and more medium color skin and the wood elves were small with dark brown hair, tanned skin and dark eyes.

Ratskinner · Feb 7, 2013

While the elf-ears weren't my greatest concern, they did contribute to the overall feeling of something being "off" in most the art. "Legs too short", "weapon way way too big","I can't imagine how that thing moves", etc. Maybe I'm just ignorant of Anime, or maybe I'm too old, but the elf ears remind me a bit too much of Spitting Image's spock:

Which, I guess kinda sums it up. Things look too much like caricature in the most recent revelations (except for a few of the less humanoid monsters...which looked pretty good. Displacer beast, frex, IMO.

As others have mentioned, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and Gnomes should probably all stay pretty close to human-looking (FR's odd skin colorations are fine, AFAIC.) At least for the elves, humans are supposed to be able to breed with them, so I'd think they need to look pretty darn close

.

I don't think it will keep me from buying the product if the rules are good, though.

Samloyal23 · Feb 7, 2013

Ears should fit under a helmet when necessary and not be too big. But overall, I say keep it folkloric. Go back to actual myths and legends. The Gruagach usually had brown hair but they had a streak of red at the temples. Their dogs had read fur at the ears. That is plenty of variation right there. You can pick a gruagach out of a crowd of tuatha de danaan just by his hair...

Jester David · Feb 7, 2013

I'm assuming this discussion is referring to the concept art:
http://conceptopolis.deviantart.com/gallery/26646047#/d5rsj3c
http://conceptopolis.deviantart.com...011867?q=gallery:conceptopolis/26646047&qo=12

If you compare them with Pozas' piece:

Klaus said:
And since a picture is worth 10d100 words, here's my concept image for elves:

View attachment 56361

The size isn't that different. The concept ears aren't hilariously oversized.

Size isn't a problem.

It's direction. They stick out. Which makes them look larger. They could be half the size but as long as they stuck out at that angle people would be refering to them as "stupid anime ears".

steeldragons · Feb 7, 2013

Jester Canuck said:
Size isn't a problem.

It's direction. They stick out. Which makes them look larger. They could be half the size but as long as they stuck out at that angle people would be refering to them as "stupid anime ears".

Just so. Exactly this.

Bedrockgames · Feb 7, 2013

Ear shape seems like a relatively minor thing to get hung up on here. I am not the biggest fan of anime-style D&D, but we are largely just talking about the artwork here (I could be wrong, but I don't believe the physical descriptions of the ears have been all that different or terribly specific through the years----though I well could have missed this detail). I can ignore art. To me the thing that matters most is how the races are described in the text. Even then, I am not going to worry too much if the designers say the ears fan out, or rest flat against the head.

I'm A Banana · Feb 7, 2013

I think the most "D&D" kinds of elves would not have stuck-out pointy elf ears. D&D's elf roots go deeper than that, and hail from a place where subtle differences were important.

I don't understand the desire for all PC races to look exotic and alien by default. So maybe a particularly "human-y" elf and a particularly "elf-y" human would look almost the same at a distance. Not a big deal. These things interbreed, so they're less like alien species and more like different breeds of dog. I guess the other side of it is that a chihuahua and a great dane are the exact same species, and the look pretty dramatically distinct, which might be part of why it never bugged me too much.

I think, as always, the key is diversity. If elves look like ONE thing, that's not great. If various pictures of elves look like different things, that's awesome. Some can be anime big-eared, some can be tolkeinish, some can be humans-with-pointy-ears. Whatever.

Sunseeker · Feb 7, 2013

Kamikaze Midget said:
I think, as always, the key is diversity. If elves look like ONE thing, that's not great. If various pictures of elves look like different things, that's awesome. Some can be anime big-eared, some can be tolkeinish, some can be humans-with-pointy-ears. Whatever.

Exactly, and as always, I feel the player should have final say on how close their character comes to the norm for the setting. Anything significantly outside the table-setting norm can always be houseruled to be a deformity and thus frowned upon by that race's society. Slender, non-hairy, non-scarred orcs might be perceived just as unnatural as an Elf with 2-foot-long ears.

And I'm not suggesting that elves look distinctly alien, only that within their range of elfishness, which is already pretty darned human to begin with, they have their own distinguishing traits that make elves more than simple re-colorations of each other. Drow features might be more angular and predatory, their eyes smaller and closer together while their ears angle more backwards than upwards, coming to a sharper tip. Wood elves might have more rounded features, more facial hair(from their social/historical lack of hygiene), their ears shorter and more human, angling outwards with a more sail-like shape than a triangular shape. Grey/High/Eladrin elves might have taller, narrower ears, flatter against their skull with very chiseled facial features, where Drow look almost gaunt, High elves look statuesque.

Blackwarder · Feb 7, 2013

Jester Canuck said:
Size isn't a problem.

It's direction. They stick out. Which makes them look larger. They could be half the size but as long as they stuck out at that angle people would be refering to them as "stupid anime ears".

Yup, totally agree.

Warder

Tequila Sunrise · Feb 7, 2013

Bedrockgames said:
Ear shape seems like a relatively minor thing to get hung up on here. I am not the biggest fan of anime-style D&D, but we are largely just talking about the artwork here (I could be wrong, but I don't believe the physical descriptions of the ears have been all that different or terribly specific through the years----though I well could have missed this detail). I can ignore art. To me the thing that matters most is how the races are described in the text. Even then, I am not going to worry too much if the designers say the ears fan out, or rest flat against the head.

You speak truth, my friend.

Kamikaze Midget said:
I don't understand the desire for all PC races to look exotic and alien by default.

Aside from the ear-issue, which I don't care much about one way or another, I like dramatic cosmetic differences between races. I've written tables for random* hair/eye/skin color for many of the races of my campaign. Why? I guess I find it amazing a D&D world should have all the humanoid usuals; some tiny, some towering, some emaciated, some stone-sturdy, some with magical powers, etc....but who otherwise keep within the bounds of real life cosmetic traits. I mean if there's such variance in size, natural temperament, and abilities, surely there'll be someone with purple hair, or long black nails, or whatever.

*I don't make players roll for this stuff; they're free to simply use it as inspiration/default appearance.

The elf ear-itation.

Elf Witch

First Post

Ratskinner

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Samloyal23

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Jester David

Hero

steeldragons

Steeliest of the dragons

Bedrockgames

Legend

I'm A Banana

Potassium-Rich

Sunseeker

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Blackwarder

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Tequila Sunrise

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